Longtime Oakland businessman faces 12 felony labor charges

Li Zheng, owner of the Century Buffet on International Boulevard, has been charged with multiple labor-related felonies.

Servers working at Century Buffet on International Boulevard near the Fruitvale District were working 12-hour days, six days a week, being paid far below minimum wage or only in tips, according to a criminal complaint filed by the Alameda District Attorney. The complaint states that workers were not paid overtime and had no bathroom or lunch breaks.

On Thursday afternoon in a court room in the Hayward Hall of Justice, law enforcement officials charged the restaurant’s owner, Ji Li Zheng, with 12 felony and four misdemeanor counts for failing to collect unemployment insurance tax, evading unemployment insurance tax, worker’s compensation fraud, dissuading a witness from reporting a crime, and failing to pay minimum wage.

“This case sends a clear message that wage theft is a crime and it will be prosecuted as such in the state of California,” said State Labor Commissioner Julie A. Su in a statement released a day before Zheng’s arraignment.